The Creation, Development, History and Structure of Public Health - Essay Example

The Creation, Development, History and Organizational Structure of Public Health Introduction Public Health can be defined as the Science and Art of protecting and promoting health in communities. This can be done through education programs, conducting researches on how to prevent diseases and injuries, and promoting health lifestyles (Turnock 3). Public health looks at all dimensions of health which are physical health, mental health, as well as, the social well being of an individual. To ensure that the public health system is most effective and covers all areas related to an individual’s health, the system makes use of approaches that are applied in various disciplines such as biostatistics and in the provision of health services. Again, the field of public health is comprised of a number of sub fields such as community health, environmental health, occupational health, to list but a few. This paper will in detail entail the history of public health, its creation, development, and organizational structure of public health. History of Public Health Archeological studies have revealed that Homo sapiens suffered from relatively similar diseases to the ones that the modern man suffers from. However, the Homo sapiens did not have a way to manage the diseases. Still in the prehistoric days, communities that existed did not have a way of dealing with the diseases that they suffered from. Following their beliefs that diseases were caused by supernatural forces, the communities created a group of specially trained people to intervene on their behalf to the spirits, begging them to save them from the wrath of acquiring the diseases (Turnock 14). This was somewhat an organized approach to managing the diseases, though very primitive. This later changed after a while when cities began to develop, replacing the ancient villages. From historical records, these cities especially in Rome and Asia were found to have had sewerage and water systems that have some slight similarities to systems used today. For instance, Cloaca Maxima, a central drain used in Ancient Rome is still used in Modern Rome. These new changes founded the beginning of Organized Public Health Systems. Further developments took place in Europe where large cities disappeared and were replaced by small villages. The disappearance of the large cities was a result of political and social instabilities that resulted from frequent wars experienced at the time. In these small villages, piped water services as well as, sewerage services were provided to the people. With time, bathing facilities, ventilators, and other sanitation amenities were also provided to the people. At that time, the Christianity religion had a number of followers in Europe and Rome. Monasteries that were used by missionaries at the time were also used as health facilities for people who were travelling or people who needed health care services. However, the health services offered at these monasteries was a bit back dated. Other hospices set up in places like Baghdad were fortunate enough to have better and advanced medicine and treatment approaches. During the Renaissance period, there was an outbreak of contagious diseases; leprosy and small pox. During this period, there were great strides of developments in the commerce, sciences, and politics of the day. Unfortunately these developments were not enough to deal with the epidemics that had spread from Europe to America, and even to some parts of Asia. Efforts to help manage the situation led to the creation of health boards whose main responsibility was to see to the prevention and treatment of diseases. Scientists, researchers, and physicians combined efforts to find the causes of various diseases, their treatment and how to prevent them. This marked the beginning of public health. The Creation of Public Health The official creation of public health system can be dated back to the Enlightenment period which lasted between 1750 to the 19th Century. During this period, there were immense developments in politics, industries, and even the society as a whole. The developments initiated the Industrial Revolution, a phenomenon that led to many innovations that are still used up to date. The first move towards the creation of public health happened in Germany where Johann Frank, a leading expert in medical issues did some research and published a treatise. The treatise was better known as the “System of a Complete Medical Policy” (Bonita 26). In the publication, Johann made proposals to help promote and protect the health in the society. The publication covered the lifespan of a person right from birth till death. Johann proposed changes in government regulations with the motive of promoting health. The proposals covered aspects such as environmental health and personal health. At the same time, Jeremy Bentham from England also proposed a bill that was meant to protect the health being of the population. Jeremy proposed prison reforms, creation of a health ministry, and introduction of health care and sanitary measures, including birth control measures. The policies were based on a humanitarian aspect meant to bring reforms in the politics of the country. Bentham was given the responsibility to see to it that the concepts in his proposal were implemented. With the help of Edwin Chadwick, a research was carried out to find out about the existence and causes of various diseases. The study focused mainly on the poor. The results of the research were posted in the “General Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain” (Bonita 32). This report was circulated in many nations worldwide and is considered a very important document in the creation and development of public health. In the report were details of housing facilities for the working poor, state of sanitation facilities, sewerage and water systems, working conditions, life expectancy, and many other issues. The report also documented a solution to the evidenced problems, as well as the advantages of having an effective public health program that would check into all the issues addressed in the report (Turnock 143). Many nations such as the U.S. took the report into serious consideration and even went to conduct further studies to affirm its findings. New inventions and advanced surveys were used carry out further studies and make recommendations on how to deal with the failing health situation at the time. Another report was put together; “The Report of a General Plan for the Promotion of Public and Personal Health”. These two reports were used to come up with more than fifty recommendations, some which have already been implemented and others are yet to (Bonita 38). One of the recommendations put forward and has been successfully implemented is the creation of a state public health law, whose direct result was the creation of a public health system. The development of Public Health Following the creation of public health law, a system of public health was established. The system was comprised of health care facilities and associations, which is still the case in the modern world. The associations which were majorly in Europe, Germany, the U.S., and also in the U.K. were based on public health education and training (Turnock 122). This means that programs were organized where populations were made aware of existing diseases and epidemics, their causes, and how to prevent themselves from acquiring the diseases. One of the associations that oversaw to the education programs is The American Public Health Association”, which is the oldest and largest public health association in existence. Several developments have since been put in record. One thing that distinguishes public health associations from other health related associations is that public health is a multi-disciplinary field that looks into anything that is health oriented, whether related to the body directly or not. This means that the public health system has personnel from a wide range of spectrum; medical researchers, doctors, physicians, sanitarians, and many others (Bonita 112). Development in public health also differs depending on the association itself. For instance, if the association is a large one, then its scope of activities and responsibilities widens. Such an organization is capable of making policies that are used in the system, as well as publish reports for use in the system. This is in contrast to smaller organizations which have fewer functions and responsibilities. Developments in public health include more responsibilities of the system and new approaches that are used to ensure that all objectives are effectively met and achieved. An example of this is that public health associations such as the American Public Health Association lay a lot of emphasis on policy making with the intention of making the system more relevant and effective. The association has created links with politicians and with the help of advocates of health care, seen to the formulation of more health care policies. To carry out such activities, modern technology like the internet is used to ease communication and such other factors. The media is also widely used in these activities (Bonita 153). Another development is that organizations create various branches and different functions assigned to each of them. One example of this is the “Canadian Public Health Association” that has different departments to deal with different functions: there is department of health services, another of disease surveillance and control, amidst others (Bonita 164). Public health associations have also been grouped together to form the World Federation of Public Health Associations. This development is meant to ease the communication and enhance working relationships among public health associations and international organizations. The development has helped improve on public health in many communities. The Organizational Structure of Public Health Most nations, both in the developed and under-developed world have got a Public Health and Sanitation Ministry (Novick, Morrow, and Mays 14). The ministry is headed by a minister, with the help of an assistant minister. Under the minister is a permanent secretary who is in charge of various departments: public health and sanitation, audit and accounting, administration, and any other relevant department. These departments are headed by directors. The largest department, which is the department of Public health and sanitation, has got several functions; the function of disease control, family health, sanitation and environmental health, general health promotion, basic health services, disaster management, and other relevant functions. Under each of these functions are sub-functions that make it easily to effectively meet the set objectives. The organizational structure of public health also has provisions for all different roles since public health is a combination of different disciplines (Novick, Morrow, and Mays 27). In conclusion, public health looks at health issues from a wide scope. This makes it possible to ensure that members of a community are at their best health wise, physically, mentally, and socially. The public health ministry is a very important part of the society, since its programs are designed in a way to reach even those in the most remote of places. It should also be noted that the organizational structures of the public health may vary owing to differences in the way countries are run. Bibliography 1. Turnock J. Bernard. Public Health: what it is and how it works. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009. Print. This book tries to explain what public health is, how it works, and what it does. Turnock does this by looking in depth at the public system of the U.S. This book also looks at the origin of public health, how it was created and how it has been developed to what is today. The book also entails the organization of a public health system. All these made the book very useful when writing this paper. 2. Novick F. Lloyd, Morrow B. Cynthia, Mays P. Glen. Public health administration: principles for population-based management. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2008. Print. This book explains the relationship and differences between public health systems and other health care systems. The book also looks at how the public health system is administered and run by explaining in detail about the structure and organization of public health. Authors of this book are well skilled and experienced health practitioners, making this book a very reliable one for this particular paper. 3. Bonita Beaglehole. Global public health: a new era. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print In this book, Bonita explains in details the developments that have been made in public health since it was created. This books looks at public health in various regions of the world, giving a vivid image of public health in the modern world, and also a hint of how it was some time back. Works Cited Turnock J. Bernard. Public Health: what it is and how it works. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009. Print. Novick F. Lloyd, Morrow B. Cynthia, and Mays P. Glen. Public health administration: principles for population-based management. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2008. Print. Bonita Beaglehole. Global public health: a new era. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Read More